The Wild Moose Chase
by Cut Spaghetti
Summary: Dressed in a gluey moose costume, the Stoll brothers are ready to go raid houses for candy. But after an hour and a half of trekking through the forest (or "the shortcut", as Travis calls it), they still can't find the neighborhood they were looking for. However, they do find something different: two orange blobs. Tratie :)


**Hey humans! I wrote a little tratie oneshot for my first fanfic. Enjoy (or not?) :)**

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own PJO :)**

Damn. It was so fucking cold out here.

Travis hadn't anticipated this type of cold. After all, it was only October, and even though they were in upstate New York, it shouldn't have even been that cold. Cool, yes, but freeze-your-ass-off-cold, no.

It was kind of a shame that his fingers were icicles because he had this itch in his butt…

"Don't even think about scratching your ass," Connor, Travis's fifteen year old brother and partner in crime said, narrowing his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that Connor practically understood Travis back and forth, he probably would've "accidentally" drowned Connor in the tub as a toddler. That boy could not sneak around so save his life. He breathed like the fucking Darth Vader.

"How'd you know?" Travis asked, narrowing his eyes at Connor. Sometimes, he swore Connor had ESP.

"I can see these things in your eyes," Connor said sagely.

Travis motioned with one elbow (his hands were too frozen) for Connor to follow him in the thicket. He waddled (his feet were too frozen, too) over a large log, covered almost entirely covered in fluffy green stuff. They had passes probably a million logs like this on their trek through the forest, but this time, Travis could care less if the legs of the moose costume touched the ground. He was too cold to care, too tired to care, and too annoyed to care.

"Dude," Connor, said from the back of the moose costume, "We've been walking for at least an hour. _There is no neighborhood_. This is, like, the end of civilization." Travis scowled. Connor had been saying this for a whole hour and a half. Was it him who printed out the mapquest directions? Was it him that looked up every single house on Zillow to make sure that it was a)inhabited and b)that rich people lived there? Was it him who spent an hour and a half gluing cloth together to make the costume? _Connor has no right to say that_, Travis fumed from the moose's head.

"Trust me, Connor," Travis insisted impatiently, "I swear to god that there's a neighborhood somewhere here. See, I even have the mapquest directions!" he waved them in his face. "And apparently," Travis lowered his voice, "There's this big-ass mansion owned by this dude who owns, like, this farm or whatever and has all this property. He'll probably give us, like, chocolate covered bacon or whatever."

"Chocolate covered bacon?"

"Shoot the pig, squeeze the udders, and harvest the chocolate bushes."

"Travis, chocolate doesn't grow on bushes."

"Whatever, dude. Seriously, whatever."

They walked on in silence for a few minutes, which was a good thing, because if there was anything Travis could do without for a few minutes, it was Connor talking. He thought back to his other Halloweens, the ones he spent in normal neighborhoods, getting normal amounts of candy, and dressing up as normal things. This year, though, was different. This year, Travis and Connor were going to get at least ten times the amount of candy they got before. The way Travis saw it, the richer the person, the bigger the candy bars. And the bigger the candy bars, the more sugar for Travis and Connor. Which was a good thing. Sort of. Kind of. Maybe.

_Click. BANG!_

Travis's head did a one eighty towards Connor, all the thoughts of Halloween. _What was that?_ , he mouthed. Connor shrugged. Travis sucked his teeth. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good…

_Click. BANG!_

Peering out from the scissor cut circles Travis had cut out on the moose's head, he looked out into the forest. Darkness was enveloping them from all corners. Dark, dark, dark, dark, and then-_was that orange?!_ Yeah, that was orange. What the hell? Why was that orange thing making noises? Was it an animal. _No, _Travis's common sense decided, _no animal could have skin that orange_.

Maybe it was something that moose knew about. Maybe moose painted themselves orange when they wanted to mate with each other. But it didn't make sense. Even Travis knew that. How could a moose paint itself?

The orange blob drew closer, and as they neared, Travis saw the blobs split into two: one small one, one big one. He grinded his teeth. There were two of them! What if it was some sort of…thing!? They were going to die.

And then he noticed something in the hand of the smaller orange blob, the one that he thought was part of the bigger one. It was a _rifle_. And those weren't blobs anymore. Those were humans.

Oh shit.

Oh shit.

SHITSHITSHIT!

"Con-man," Travis said, talking fast. "Strip the costume. NOW." Connor opened his mouth to say something, but before the words came out, Travis, who couldn't even think straight, whipped off the moose's head and threw the gluey felt costume to the forest floor, yanking it off of Connor at the same.

"STOP!" Travis shrieked. "WE'RE HUMANS!"

He felt Connor and the guy both looking at him, Connor probably out of shock that their life was threatened, and the guy, probably wondering why two teenagers dressed in a still wet moose costume were hanging around in a dark forest on Halloween. The smaller hunter looked at him too; he was probably thinking the same thing as the guy.

Finally, the guy seemed to come to a conclusion. "TRESSPASSERS!" he bellowed, "HANDS UP OR I'LL SHOOT."

It took two seconds to put two and two together and to make four. The really rich guy…this was him…and this was his property. And he wanted them off. Now.

So there was only one thing left to do.

"RUN!" Travis screamed at Connor, who surprisingly, bolted right into action. Travis had run a bunch of times before: at camp, from Katie Gardner, from Percy, from Annabeth, and from Mr. D. But he'd never really had a purpose to run. Yeah, sure, once Katie got to him, she'd probably hit him, but then what? He wouldn't die. The cops wouldn't be called. It would all go down like a very small, very tiny flame that someone blew out.

This was a frickin' bonfire.

And still, Travis couldn't wipe that smile off his face. Being chased by some rich guy with a gun wasn't supposed to be smile-worthy, and yet it was. He'd been called trouble for years and this, this, THIS, made stuff he did in the past look like nothing. This was something big. This was a BONFIRE.

Burning all over from the cold and windchill (he had to keep going though), Travis chanced a look behind him at the hunters. Every few seconds, a hunter would hold up a rifle, like he was threatening to shoot them, but then dropped it, like they decided Travis and Connor weren't worth their bullets. They still kept on their trail though, and the hunters were starting to gain speed on them. With Connor's breathing and the hunters, there was no way they'd make it that much farther.

"Connor! Stop at the tree!" Travis hissed at his brother, pointing to a tree ahead, a big evergreen. They'd just have to give themselves up. At least they'd had fun.

Connor and Travis slowed to a stop at the tree, facing the guy right in the eyes. He held his gun up, Travis and Connor held their hands up. Every now and then, Connor case a worried glance at Travis, but Travis pretended to ignore him while the guy shouted at them.

The small hunter was pretty quiet, and now that Travis got up close to his face, he couldn't stop making eye contact with him. He had dull green eyes, not very pretty, not very interesting, and not all that bright, but Travis liked them anyway. Oh, he was just so gorgeous. Wait. Did that mean Travis was gay? Or bi at least? He'd dated girls before but…

He was definitely bi.

And then the small hunter, the one Travis liked, raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and Travis almost laughed out loud, because it wasn't a _he_ it was a _she. _It wasn't just any she though- it was Katie Gardner, his ex from when they were, like, thirteen, the girl who threatened to kill him a bajillion times at camp and almost had the chance tonight. He laughed, and then she laughed because he had figured her out.

_Run, _Katie mouthed. _One,_ she mouthed. Travis's brain froze. Should he run? He'd have to take Connor with him and Connor wasn't the best at running…

_Two_. And Katie looked like she was bracing herself to run with them. Oh great. An annoying ex, and an asthmatic brother. This was going to be a fun getaway.

_Three._ Wait, why should he take Katie anyway? What was she to him? They weren't friends, and they were probably just a little north of enemies. But, he _did_ care about her. Was that even right? To care about someone you can't really place? Did that mean that they were now, like, friends, or something?

But maybe he didn't have to be her friend to care about her, the thought as her grabbed her arm and Connor's arm in different hands, and started to run, with them along side him. Maybe caring about someone wasn't a commitment. Maybe caring didn't mean love or friendship or whatever.

"We are so screwed," Katie laughed as her dad cursed them out, puffing to catch up with them. He looked back at Connor and Katie.

They weren't dating. They weren't even friends. But somehow, it was okay to care about her anyway.

**Wow! It's like, one thirty in the morning now, and I swear, my eyelids are going to fall off. Sooo…did you like it? Was it okayish? Did it make you want to barf an die and stab your computer?**

**You know, a review would be pretty cool…just saying ;)**

**Stay trashy,**

**Bianca :)**


End file.
